High electron mobility transistor and method for fabricating the same

ABSTRACT

A method for fabricating high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes the steps of: forming a buffer layer on a substrate; forming a first barrier layer on the buffer layer; forming a first hard mask on the first barrier layer; removing the first hard mask and the first barrier layer to form a recess; forming a second barrier layer in the recess; and forming a p-type semiconductor layer on the second barrier layer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) andmethod for fabricating the same.

2. Description of the Prior Art

High electron mobility transistor (HEMT) fabricated from GaN-basedmaterials have various advantages in electrical, mechanical, andchemical aspects of the field. For instance, advantages including wideband gap, high break down voltage, high electron mobility, high elasticmodulus, high piezoelectric and piezoresistive coefficients, andchemical inertness. All of these advantages allow GaN-based materials tobe used in numerous applications including high intensity light emittingdiodes (LEDs), power switching devices, regulators, battery protectors,display panel drivers, and communication devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method forfabricating high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes the stepsof: forming a buffer layer on a substrate; forming a first barrier layeron the buffer layer; forming a first hard mask on the first barrierlayer; removing the first hard mask and the first barrier layer to forma recess; forming a second barrier layer in the recess; and forming ap-type semiconductor layer on the second barrier layer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method forfabricating high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes the stepsof: forming a buffer layer on a substrate; forming a barrier layer onthe buffer layer; forming a first hard mask on the barrier layer;forming a second hard mask on the first hard mask; removing the secondhard mask and the first hard mask to form a recess; and forming a p-typesemiconductor layer on the barrier layer.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a highelectron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes: a buffer layer on asubstrate; a p-type semiconductor layer on the buffer layer; a firstbarrier layer between the buffer layer and the p-type semiconductorlayer; a second barrier layer adjacent to two sides of the first barrierlayer, wherein the first barrier layer and the second barrier layercomprise different thicknesses; a gate electrode on the p-typesemiconductor layer; and a source electrode and a drain electrodeadjacent to two sides of the gate electrode on the buffer layer.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-5 illustrate a method for fabricating a HEMT according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6-10 illustrate a method for fabricating a HEMT according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the FIGS. 1-5, FIGS. 1-5 illustrate a method forfabricating a HEMT according to an embodiment of the present invention.As shown in the FIG. 1, a substrate 12 such as a substrate made fromsilicon, silicon carbide, or aluminum oxide (or also referred to assapphire) is provided, in which the substrate 12 could be asingle-layered substrate, a multi-layered substrate, gradient substrate,or combination thereof. According to other embodiment of the presentinvention, the substrate 12 could also include a silicon-on-insulator(SOI) substrate.

Next, a buffer layer 14 is formed on the substrate 12. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the buffer layer 14 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN), in which athickness of the buffer layer 14 could be between 0.5 microns to 10microns. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theformation of the buffer layer 14 could be accomplished by amolecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organic chemical vapordeposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, ahydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, a first barrier layer 16 is formed on the surface of the bufferlayer 14. In this embodiment, the first barrier layer 16 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride(Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, x being less than or equal to 20%,and the first barrier layer 16 preferably includes an epitaxial layerformed through epitaxial growth process. Similar to the buffer layer 14,the formation of the first barrier layer 16 on the buffer layer 14 couldbe accomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapordeposition (CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process,or combination thereof. It should be noted that even though the firstbarrier layer 16 is formed directly on the surface of the buffer layer14, according to another embodiment of the present invention, it wouldalso be desirable to form an extra metal nitride layer (not shown)including but not limited to for example aluminum nitride (AlN) betweenthe buffer layer 14 and the first barrier layer 16, which is also withinthe scope of the present invention. Next, a first hard mask 18 is formedon the surface of the first barrier layer 16. Preferably, the first hardmask 18 includes silicon nitride and the thickness thereof is around 5nm, but not limited thereto.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a MESA isolation process is conducted todefine a MESA area 20 and an active area so that devices could beisolated to operate independently without affecting each other. In thisembodiment, the MESA isolation process could be accomplished byconducting a photo-etching process to remove part of the first hard mask18, part of the first barrier layer 16, and part of the buffer layer 14,in which the patterned first hard mask 18, the patterned first barrierlayer 16, and the patterned buffer layer 14 preferably share equalwidths and edges of the three layers are aligned. The width of theremaining un-patterned buffer layer 14 is preferably equal to the widthof the substrate 12.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, a second hard mask 22 is formed on the firsthard mask 18, including the top surface and sidewalls of the of thefirst hard mask 18, sidewalls of the first barrier layer 16, sidewallsof the buffer layer 14, and surface of the buffer layer 14 adjacent totwo sides of the MESA area 20. Next, another photo-etching process isconducted to remove part of the second hard mask 22, part of the firsthard mask 18, and part of the first barrier layer 16 to form a recess 24exposing the surface of the buffer layer 14.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, a second barrier layer 26 is formed in therecess 24, a p-type semiconductor layer 28 is formed on the secondbarrier layer 26, and part of the second hard mask 22 is removed toexpose the first hard mask 18 underneath. In this embodiment, the firstbarrier layer 16 and the second barrier layer 26 preferably includesdifferent concentrations of aluminum or more specifically the aluminumconcentration of the second barrier layer 26 is less than the aluminumconcentration of the first barrier layer 16. For instance, the firstbarrier layer 16 is made of III-V semiconductor such as aluminum galliumnitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, x being 15-50% and the secondbarrier layer 26 is made of III-V semiconductor such as aluminum galliumnitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, x being 5-15%. Preferably,the p-type semiconductor layer 28 is a III-V compound layer includingp-type GaN.

Moreover, the thickness of the second barrier layer 26 is preferablyless than the thickness of the first barrier layer 16, in which thethickness of the first barrier layer 16 is between 15-20 nm while thethickness of the second barrier layer 26 is between 5-15 nm. Similar tothe formation of the first barrier layer 16, the formation of the secondbarrier layer 26 and p-type semiconductor layer 28 on the buffer layer14 within the recess 24 could be accomplished by a molecular-beamepitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a hydride vaporphase epitaxy (HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, a passivation layer 30 is formed on the firsthas mask 18, the p-type semiconductor layer 28, and surface of thebuffer layer 14 adjacent to two sides of the MESA area 20, a gateelectrode 32 is formed on the p-type semiconductor layer 28, and asource electrode 34 and drain electrode 36 are formed adjacent to twosides of the gate electrode 32. In this embodiment, the formation of thegate electrode 32, the source electrode 34, and the drain electrode 36could be accomplished by first conducting a photo-etching process toremove part of the passivation layer 30 directly on top of the p-typesemiconductor layer 28 to form a recess (not shown), forming the gateelectrode 32 in the recess, removing part of the passivation layer 30and part of the first hard mask 18 adjacent to two sides of the gateelectrode 32 to form two recesses (not shown), and then forming thesource electrode 34 and drain electrode 36 in the two recesses.

In this embodiment, the gate electrode 32, the source electrode 34, andthe drain electrode 36 are preferably made of metal, in which the gateelectrode 32 is preferably made of Schottky metal while the sourceelectrode 34 and the drain electrode 36 are preferably made of ohmiccontact metals. According to an embodiment of the present invention,each of the gate electrode 32, source electrode 34, and drain electrode36 could include gold (Au), Silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), titanium (Ti),aluminum (Al), tungsten (W), palladium (Pd), or combination thereof.Preferably, it would be desirable to conduct an electroplating process,sputtering process, resistance heating evaporation process, electronbeam evaporation process, physical vapor deposition (PVD) process,chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, or combination thereof to formelectrode materials in the aforementioned recesses, and then pattern theelectrode materials through one or more etching processes to form thegate electrode 32, source electrode 34, and the drain electrode 36. Thiscompletes the fabrication of a HEMT according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring again to FIG. 5, FIG. 5 further illustrates a structural viewof a HEMT according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shownin FIG. 5, the HMET includes a buffer layer 14 disposed on a substrate12, a p-type semiconductor layer 28 disposed on the buffer layer 14, afirst barrier layer 16 disposed adjacent to two sides of the p-typesemiconductor layer 28, a second barrier layer 26 disposed between thebuffer layer 14 and the p-type semiconductor layer 28, a gate electrode32 disposed on the p-type semiconductor layer 28, and a source electrode34 and drain electrode 36 disposed on the first barrier layer 16adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode 32, in which the sidewallsof the p-type semiconductor layer 28 and second barrier layer 26 arealigned.

In this embodiment, the first barrier layer 16 and the second barrierlayer 26 preferably include different thicknesses such as the thicknessof the second barrier layer 26 is less than the thickness of the firstbarrier layer 16. Moreover, the first barrier layer 16 and the secondbarrier layer 26 preferably includes different concentrations ofaluminum or more specifically the aluminum concentration of the secondbarrier layer 26 is less than the aluminum concentration of the firstbarrier layer 16. For instance, the first barrier layer 16 is made ofIII-V semiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N),in which 0<x<1, x being 15-50% and the second barrier layer 26 is madeof III-V semiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride(Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, x being 5-15%. The p-typesemiconductor layer 28 preferably includes p-type GaN.

Referring to FIGS. 6-10, FIGS. 6-10 illustrate a method for fabricatinga HEMT according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown inthe FIG. 6, a substrate 42 such as a substrate made from silicon,silicon carbide, or aluminum oxide (or also referred to as sapphire) isprovided, in which the substrate 42 could be a single-layered substrate,a multi-layered substrate, gradient substrate, or combination thereof.According to other embodiment of the present invention, the substrate 42could also include a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate.

Next, a buffer layer 44 is formed on the substrate 42. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the buffer layer 44 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN), in which athickness of the buffer layer 44 could be between 0.5 microns to 10microns. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theformation of the buffer layer 44 could be accomplished by amolecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organic chemical vapordeposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, ahydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, a barrier layer 46 is formed on the surface of the buffer layer44. In this embodiment, the barrier layer 46 is preferably made of III-Vsemiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), inwhich 0<x<1 and the barrier layer 46 preferably includes an epitaxiallayer formed through epitaxial growth process. Similar to the bufferlayer 44, the formation of the first barrier layer 46 on the bufferlayer 44 could be accomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)process, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, achemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE) process, or combination thereof. It should be noted that eventhough the barrier layer 46 is formed directly on the surface of thebuffer layer 44, according to another embodiment of the presentinvention, it would also be desirable to form an extra metal nitridelayer (not shown) including but not limited to for example aluminumnitride (AlN) between the buffer layer 44 and the barrier layer 46,which is also within the scope of the present invention.

Next, a first hard mask 48 and a second hard mask 50 are formed on thesurface of the barrier layer 46. Preferably, the first hard mask 48 andthe second hard mask 50 are made of different materials, in which thefirst hard mask 48 includes silicon nitride and the thickness thereof isaround 5 nm and the second hard mask 50 includes silicon oxide, but notlimited thereto.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, a MESA isolation process is conducted todefine a MESA area 52 and an active area so that devices could beisolated to operate independently without affecting each other. In thisembodiment, the MESA isolation process could be accomplished byconducting a photo-etching process to remove part of the second hardmask 50, part of the first hard mask 48, part of the barrier layer 46,and part of the buffer layer 44, in which the patterned second hard mask50, the patterned first hard mask 48, the patterned barrier layer 46,and the patterned buffer layer 44 preferably share equal thickness andedges of the four layers are aligned. The width of the remainingun-patterned buffer layer 44 is preferably equal to the width of thesubstrate 42.

Next, as shown in FIG. 8, a third hard mask 54 is formed on the secondhard mask 50, including the top surface of the second hard mask 50,sidewalls of the second hard mask 50, sidewalls of the first hard mask48, sidewalls of the barrier layer 46, and sidewalls of the buffer layer44, and a photo-etching process is conducted to remove part of the thirdhard mask 54, part of the second hard mask 50, and part of the firsthard mask 48 to form a recess 56 exposing the surface of the barrierlayer 46 without removing any of the barrier layer 46. In other words,the barrier layer 46 directly under the recess 56 and the barrier layer46 adjacent to two sides of the recess 56 preferably share equalthickness after the recess 56 is formed. In this embodiment, the thirdhard mask 54 and the second hard mask 50 preferably include samematerial such as silicon oxide, but not limited thereto.

Next, as shown in FIG. 9, a p-type semiconductor layer 58 is formed onthe barrier layer 46 within the recess 56, and the third hard mask 54and second hard mask 50 are removed to expose the first hard mask 48underneath. Similar to the aforementioned embodiment, the p-typesemiconductor layer 58 preferably includes p-type GaN and the formationof the p-type semiconductor layer 58 on the barrier layer 46 within therecess 56 could be accomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)process, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, achemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 10, a passivation layer 60 is formed on the firsthas mask 48, the p-type semiconductor layer 58, and surface of thebuffer layer 44 adjacent to two sides of the MESA area 52, a gateelectrode 62 is formed on the p-type semiconductor layer 58, and asource electrode 64 and drain electrode 66 are formed adjacent to twosides of the gate electrode 62. In this embodiment, the formation of thegate electrode 62, the source electrode 64, and the drain electrode 66could be accomplished by first conducting a photo-etching process toremove part of the passivation layer 60 directly on top of the p-typesemiconductor layer 58 to form a recess (not shown), forming the gateelectrode 62 in the recess, removing part of the passivation layer 60and part of the first hard mask 48 adjacent to two sides of the gateelectrode 62 to form two recesses (not shown), and then forming thesource electrode 64 and drain electrode 66 in the two recesses.

In this embodiment, the gate electrode 62, the source electrode 64, andthe drain electrode 66 are preferably made of metal, in which the gateelectrode 62 is preferably made of Schottky metal while the sourceelectrode 64 and the drain electrode 66 are preferably made of ohmiccontact metals. According to an embodiment of the present invention,each of the gate electrode 62, source electrode 64, and drain electrode66 could include gold (Au), Silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), titanium (Ti),aluminum (Al), tungsten (W), palladium (Pd), or combination thereof.Preferably, it would be desirable to conduct an electroplating process,sputtering process, resistance heating evaporation process, electronbeam evaporation process, physical vapor deposition (PVD) process,chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, or combination thereof to formelectrode materials in the aforementioned recesses, and then pattern theelectrode materials through one or more etching processes to form thegate electrode 62, source electrode 64, and the drain electrode 66. Thiscompletes the fabrication of a HEMT according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Overall, the present invention first forms a hard mask made ofdielectric material including but not limited to for example siliconnitride on the surface of a AlGaN barrier layer, removes part of thehard mask and part of the AlGaN barrier layer to form a recess, and thenforms a p-type semiconductor layer and gate electrode in the recess. Byemploying this approach the hard mask formed on the surface of the AlGaNbarrier layer could be used to protect the AlGaN barrier layer fromdamages caused by various etchant during the fabrication process andalso prevent issue such as stress degradation occurring after theformation of passivation layer.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A high electron mobility transistor (HEMT),comprising: a buffer layer on a substrate; a p-type semiconductor layeron the buffer layer; a first barrier layer between the buffer layer andthe p-type semiconductor layer; a second barrier layer adjacent to twosides of the first barrier layer, wherein the first barrier layer andthe second barrier layer comprise different thicknesses, bottom surfacesof the first barrier layer and the second barrier layer are coplanar,both the first barrier layer and the second barrier layer are made ofIII-V semiconductor, and a sidewall of the first barrier layer alignedwith a sidewall of the p-type semiconductor layer is perpendicular to atop surface of the buffer layer and contacting a sidewall of the secondbarrier layer directly; a gate electrode on the p-type semiconductorlayer; and a source electrode and a drain electrode adjacent to twosides of the gate electrode on the buffer layer.
 2. The HEMT of claim 1,wherein the first barrier layer and the second barrier layer compriseAl_(x)Ga_(1-x)N.
 3. The HEMT of claim 2, wherein the first barrier layerand the second barrier layer comprise different concentrations of Al. 4.The HEMT of claim 2, wherein a concentration of Al of the first barrierlayer is less than a concentration of Al of the second barrier layer. 5.The HEMT of claim 1, wherein a thickness of the first barrier layer isless than a thickness of the second barrier layer.
 6. The HEMT of claim1, wherein sidewalls of the p-type semiconductor layer and the secondbarrier layer are aligned.